Southern Pacific 9010
Other Body Work
Page 3
-- Update September  01, 2011 --
There were two small platforms on the roof, one each on the right side of the center cooling fan.  They were there to give workmen a place to stand while tilting the center fan up.  The brackets were removed when the humps were installed but luckily the ghosts of the welds remained so we were able to locate the positions of the brackets.  The metal plates will have aluminum plates applied over them eventually.

The front cab door received some more attention with the installation of an outside door handle.  When Rob Fern was visiting from the UK in June, he whimsically drew a handle on the outside.  It is remarkable how closely the real handle matches the one Rob drew.  And, the process of welding the framework to the outer sheet has been completed.  

And Mike O. has finished the metal work on the #1 cooling section.  He is now in the process of applying a coat of epoxy primer.

Dan continues his assault on the rough metal surfaces where welding or grinding has taken place.  The immediate objective is to get a coat of primer on the the new metal on the right side of the #1 cooling room so that we can bolt the shutter assemblies back in place.

-- Update September 28, 2011 --
The new front door is nearly done.  All that remains is the green interior paint which will wait until cab rebuilding is completed.

The last 4 of the new shutter assemblies finally got their coat of primer and gray on the inside.  They were mounted where they belong which brings us very close to the end of #1 engine cooling bay  reconstruction.

 Mike O has been busy on the roof, killing rust and primering.  I am fairly sure that we have seen the last of the cutting, welding and grinding work up there.

-- Update December 08, 2011 --
I know this subject has been covered earlier in these pages but there were still 3 of the sand box bases to open up and repair.   I finally overcame my dislike of this project and got to work on them.  Rich spent a lot of time cleaning out sand that had hardened into a brick like substance.  Fortunately, the job went smoothly with no new discoveries.  Now, covers will be made and bolted in place until reproduction sand boxes are fabricated.

-- Update February 01, 2012 --
And so it became apparent that there was no way that simply using body filler was going to repair the hills and valleys found in the cab sides.  I had been debating this for some time but finally came to the conclusion that the only way out of this mess was to  replace the sheet metal cab sides.    The cab sides are  the metric equivalent of 11 gauge steel which fortunately is within a couple of thousands in thickness.  The side is spot welded to the framing along both horizontal and vertical framing members.  Dare I say that there are hundreds of welds, each one of which has to be cut loose and ground flat.
I decided to start on the engineer's side and in due course, it was striped clean of the old metal.  

There was one interesting little discovery found in the bottom of the area where the crank-up window resides.  There is a drain tube in the bottom of the are which leads - nowhere!  Rather than have it go though the frame directly below, it apparently just dumped into the area formed by the bottom of the cab wall.  This pretty much destroyed the bottom of the cab wall in this area so a proper drain was installed through the frame.  

It was also discovered that some of the framing to which the interior perforated metal mounts down in the step well was rotted away.   The perf metal was also destroyed so all new parts were fabricated and test fitted.

Removing the perf metal to replace rotten battens should not be any big deal but, part of the large piece was located behind part of the brake stand.  It had to come off so the brake stand was cut off and removed.

Two new 5 by 8 foot sheets of 11 gauge steel were purchased and we had the bottom edge formed to duplicate the radius found at the bottom of the cab wall.    Bill took on the job of drawing the cab
 framing layout on the new metal so we could drill holes in the sheet for temporarily screwing it to the framing and for the plug welds that would bond it to the frame.  Once everything was marked, we cut out the unnecessary metal, cleaned up the edges, and put it in place for a trial fit.  


Holes were drilled every 6 inches or so to bolt the new side to the framing and then more holes were drilled between the bolts.  These holes only go through the side and were used for "plug" welding the new side metal to the frame.  Once the plug welding was done, the bolts were removed and these holes welded closed.

-- Update February 27, 2012 --
And in due course, it became time to tackle the other side of the cab.   All the gory details have been covered in the last update so here are some photos of the damage.



And of course, just as on the Engineer's side, there is plenty of rot on the inner panels, the repair of  which benefits from the lack of an outside wall.  While these photos more properly belong in the "Cab" section, the repair is part of the outer wall work flow.  Eventually, all the rot was cleaned up or replaced and new battens and a new perforated metal panel were made and fitted.


The rear step well  on the fireman's side also had problems which were more easily repaired with the outside wall removed.   It had the same issues as the front step well and was cleaned up in a couple of days.  I also took the opportunity to remove the upper piece of perforated metal and clean up all the broken screws and rusty areas behind the wall.   The replacement perf piece was fitted and readied for installation.   And then, to return to the subject of this part of the web site, Bill and I  installed the new cab outer wall and welded it into place.   A coat of epoxy primer on both cab sides prepared us for body filler work on the welds.





-- Update March 30, 2012 --
Work turned to finishing the rest of the cab exterior.   Body filler had been applied to the "brow" over the front windows but never sanded so that job was completed along with primering the rest of the cab roof.  The lower half of both rear cab doors were also cleaned and primered.  

When the 9010 (9113) was converted into the camera car, the front pair of lifting hooks were torched off along with the grab irons next to them.  I replace the front hooks a while ago but had never looked at the rear hooks.  While cleaning them for painting, I noticed that they are both stamped with the number "8", something that we have seen before in other places on the locomotive.  The 9010 was the eighth locomotive off the production line and numbering the parts and assemblies was probably an accounting issue.

-- Update April 24, 2012 --
Rich has been keeping busy on dirty jobs like preparing the cable conduit channels for coating and cleaning up the right rear step well.  This is the last of these and it is great to have it cleaned, primered and ready for paint.  Thank goodness that Rich is willing to take on these thankless jobs.

We took the 9010 outside the shop and blew off all of the accumulated dust and dirt.  With the walkways cleaned, we were able to reinstall the freshly cleaned walkway tread plates.  They will be covered with sheets of plywood in order to keep them clean and free of grease and paint stripper.

-- Update May 04, 2012 --
Bob Zenk made his spring pilgrimage from Seattle this past week.  He spent  nearly every waking moment working cleaning up my welds on the new cab side sheets and some other defects in the cab surface.  It is always good to see Bob and his expertise with  body filler and sand paper are greatly appreciated.

In the background of the last photo above can be seen Dan Furtado working on the frame doors.  He has been busy stripping layers of paint, body filler and primer.  We dislike taking them down ot bare metal but their condition forces us to.  The surfaces range all the way from nearly pristine paint to bare rusty metal.

Rich has started cleaning the parts of the walkway extensions.  This involves removing the extensions and the support angle irons, cleaning the steel parts, applying rust converter and primering them.  The extension pieces will be bead blasted before reinstallation.